To shamrock or not to shamrock?

We have two fairly good-sized shamrock plants in pots here. Most summers they can be seen in the area under the linden. One is purple and one is green.

Every fall I bring them into the house, and they eventually go into my office. They give me all-winter mini flowers, and occasionally I hear rustling in late fall from a ladybug who made it in with the shamrocks, usually the purple one.

I cannot say how long I have had the Shamrocks. Probably close to, if not over 15 years now. I remember buying them one St. Patrick’s season, at the grocery store across town. They were in those tiny 3-4″ pots, and very inexpensive. I thought it would be “fun” 😊 My husband and our younger son teased that Yes! We definitely needed more plants! Hahaha!

I have given divisions to other people and they haven’t done well. But those two shamrocks are very healthy here.

There have been years where I have been sooooo looking to get the shamrocks back outside. This year is not one of them. They are very happy inside this year.

But alas! They are part of the ecosystem here. In the spring they go out, and the robins pluck the dead stuff for their nests. Eventually the wind gets to them, and all the leaves die back, and then it is just soil until they grow back and fill in stronger than ever.

It looks like the robins are starting to pair up. I am thinking they will be starting to build their nests soon. The bird bath should go out today so they can have water to make mud, and the shamrocks could go out next week after our forecasted cool and rainy weekend.

When we do move them out, I will miss them in my office, but they are starting to get that “good material for birds nests” look. Yes, I put some egg shells in there. Another post about those on the way.

The shamrocks and the birds

This past weekend I finally felt comfortable putting the shamrock plants out. The are kind of a fixture in the summer garden. The purple one especially draws the eye all the way to the end of the linden garden area.

Since we live in Minnesota, the shamrocks make their late fall to mid-spring home indoors. The night-time temperatures need to be around 40°F outdoors before they can go out in the spring. This year that was late. But they are out now, and the cycle for spring shamrock cleanup has begun. You see, every spring when I finally feel comfortable putting the shamrocks out, I am happy, and sad. Happy because the mat of dead stems that is hard to clear amongst the fragile live stems gets kind of “ugly” by May, and sad because the beautiful live shamrocks will get windblown, die back, and then take a few weeks to get their summer “coat”.

The wonderful part is what I saw first hand today as a robin flew back and forth between the purple shamrock and a nearby pine tree, plucking first big sections of the dead stem mat, and then finishing by plucking tangled remaining dead stems. It happens every year. And it makes my gardener/bird lover heart smile.

Can you see the robin? Another sat nearby and flew right behind over to the new nest location. I am assuming that is one of the pairs we saw “mating” in the past week.

The Robins Return

Over the past couple days we’ve seen a few more robins in the trees.  Today dozens at a time were flying in.

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Tonight we’re having what is supposed to be the last sub-zero night of this long winter (-6°F).  I hope they were able to tuck into warm places.

Snow is on the way for the weekend, but the temperatures are slowly warming.  Soon we will see kids out wearing shorts on 40°F days!  It’s a sure sign we are all ready for the massive mounds of snow to start melting.